Human rights defenders, members of the LGBT community, and journalists in Honduras continue to face an astounding level of violence. Threats and attacks sharply curtail freedom of expression and association. All of these groups face the same underlying problems:

The lack of serious investigations and prosecutions of the threats and attacks against them;

The allegations of participation of local and national governmental officials and/or members of official security forces in some of these threats, intimidations and attacks; and

In December 2014 the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) and Center for International Policy (CIP) traveled to Honduras to investigate how the country is responding to the needs of its citizens. What we found was a security apparatus and criminal justice system in desperate need of reform and a population with little faith in its government. Issues of violence, impunity, and corruption that have plagued the country for years are intensifying. Over the next seven days, we will be publishing a series of posts that provide a picture of the current state of Honduras' security and human rights situation.

A government crackdown over the past year, carried out in the wake of the Euromaidan revolution that toppled the government in Ukraine, has muzzled independent voices and public critics of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration in Azerbaijan.